Study: Web-enabled mobile phones are the first to click on compromised links

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iPhone users often like to think they’re smart, hip and on the cutting edge – but when it comes to falling for phishing scams, they may be more naïve than they think.

A survey conducted by anti-phishing software maker Trusteer, cited by the Help Net Security news site, found that as soon as a phishing server starts sending out e-mails, the first respondents to click on compromised links are using Web-enabled mobile phones.

Furthermore, mobile Internet users are three times more likely than desktop users to give their crucial personal information to scammers. Help Net Security points out that it’s often hard to see a link’s actual URL in a smartphone browser window, so mobile Internet users are essentially flying blind.

But that doesn’t explain why eight times as many iPhone than BlackBerry users click on fraudulent links, even though both phones display URLs poorly.

Help Net Security surmises that might be because many BlackBerrys are owned and operated by corporate clients who deploy protection and educate their users of online dangers, while almost all iPhones are in private hands — and thus, often fish in a barrel when it comes to falling for social-engineering scams.